Symi Christmas week
Pour yourself a sherry as this is a long post.
I’m shutting down for a week, as in, there may not be any posts here for a few days. I will see what mood I am in, but if you don’t hear from me here for a while, it’s because I’m having some time off, waiting for the cold water to trickle out of the tap, or still trying to get out of the house.
That was a joke. The guys have been getting on with the road really quickly and well, and strangely, with minimal noise, something of an achievement as they have to drill up the stones, pile them, level the ground beneath, replace the stones and cement around them, then scuff them down to make them less slippery and add some kind of grouting. Not much further to go. I imagine many residents are wondering if they will put the work on hold for a few days so the rubbish can be cleared from the collection points along the lane like they did before. The stray cats are no doubt loving the build-up and we’re lucky it’s not hot.
I’m not one for doing all that nostalgic ‘what a year it’s been’ stuff, but what a year it’s been, and I am talking personally here which I don’t mind doing as it’s only you reading this. Travel has been on the menu. Firstly with a trip to Split in Croatia for our honeymoon and my birthday back in March. That came with a few pre-trip days in Rhodes and was followed by a ‘cruise’ down from Athens on the Blue Star, something which I would be happy to do every other week just for the fun of it. In the early summer, I went back up the ferry route to Athens for a few days to collect a screenplay award at the London Greek Film Festival for ‘Girl Gone Greek’ with Rebecca Hall where I rather fell for the area of Thiseio, in Athens. I returned there in November to meet Neil who had been to see family in Vienna and Scotland, and another cruise back on the boat followed.
I’ve also released a few novels under my pen name, The Eastling under my real name, wrote a speech for a dear friend of mine to make when receiving his honorary doctorate in the arts and spent some time in London and Kent to meet an old school friend after 37 years. While I was there, I revisited my birthplace and caught up with other school friends still in the area and had a bit of a nostalgia event – plus my first ever cancelled flight event (sympathy to those currently stuck at Gatwick and elsewhere). If you followed that story and the compensation chase that followed, you’ll be as thrilled as me to learn that I received £50.00 from Easy Jet to compensate me for the £400.00 I’d spent on flights, pre-booked hotels, emergency hotels, feeding and taxis. Before you bombard me with helpful messages about entitlement, I’ve been through all of that several times with three different ‘we can do it for you’ companies and the airline itself all to no avail – apart from £50.00.
I didn’t mind. I was travelling and that’s the important thing. To travel is to experience adventure and difficult travel is a way to test yourself. We have only one travel plan for 2019, a wedding in Scotland in November, but who knows what might pop up in the meantime. This year, I also took up a private pension plan and took it early, and this has benefited me in various ways. Apart from having the rent and bills now covered with the income, it keeps me in the Greek tax system and, if necessary, I can prove I have a regular income. Not only that, but my investment is now out of the yUK and safely in Europe. (You might guess where I am heading with this.) I’ve also ensured my residency card is in order, my bank account profile is up to date, I have private health insurance and take no money from the state, and I am working on changing my driving license to a Greek one, or I will be in the new year. Yes, I’m heading towards mentioning the hideous Brexit fiasco that has forced me to refer to my home country as the yUK, rather than the UK.
I don’t mean the people I know or the scenery, there’s nothing yuk about them, but the state of the ‘union’ is now in peril, and the country has no idea where it’s going or what it’s doing. Actuality, not the country, but the politicians ‘in charge’ and on all sides. I’m not one for predictions, but I do reckon that woman will get what she wants as she always slimes her way out of things, and the yUK will become even more of a laughing stock and a difficult place to live. The worst things about all of this, in no particular order, are that: a) no-one knew what they were voting for, b) no-one researched what it would mean, c) the far right have seen it as a chance to get a foot in, c) future generations will not have the opportunities we currently have, d) everything else. But the worse thing is simply that no-one knows what will happen and if people were aware of the consequences before the cowardly referendum was called, they might have voted with knowledge rather than hatred. Whatever happens, we’ve done all we can to secure our security here, so hopefully, the Symi Dream blog will continue past March next year.
Enough of that. Back to the nice stuff. The office planning is underway, and the furniture has been ordered, the carpet may be here this weekend if not after Christmas, and I am on target to start my ‘renovations’ early in the New Year. There will be photos. I’ve booked flights for mother to visit next September and there’s a surprise trip in the planning for 2020 – though original plans have changed.
Okay, so as I write we have only a trickle of cold water in the house and no hot, so we’re doing the washing and taking showers in a house near The Olive Tree (with permission), but Symi Property Services are on the case. We nearly have a new road outside the front gate and Kevin’s on the case regards the fig tree which has breached the sterna which won’t be repaired until the summer, if at all… But hey! We’re on Symi, it’s clear and cold, chilled in more ways than one and we have a festive season a few days away and two wonderful godboys to share it with. (And their mum who, as many will know, is Actually Mother Christmas, the superhero.)
On which note, I will wish all my readers a peaceful Christmas if you celebrate it and a happy New Year to all. Check back over the next week, there may be more about our Symi Christmas if I have anything to share, and I’ll definitely be back around New Year to pick up and start a new year with random highlights, cheap publicity for my novels, photos from the phone and other nonsense. Xronia Polla!
And now a few more random images from the year.
If you were wondering about the pen name thing, it’s all niche writing (MM romance) and you will pick up on the author name if you follow my James Collins Author page on Facebook – which it would be good to have you visit, like and share the jingle bells out of.
